New Passport Laws and Their Importance
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has recently encourage trans and gender-non-conforming people to update their passports whenever possible. According to a news article from them, the ACLU and a Massachusetts district court legally fought Trump and his Administration to not assign someone’s passport to their “biological sex” with no X option. Fortunately, ACLU and the court were able to win that battle. However, they don’t know how long it would be able to stay.
The Trump administration could convince the courts that people have to be assigned with their “biological sex” on their passports. As a result, the ACLU wants people to change their passport gender markers to the way they want it right now. In the them article, they specifically go into more detail on how to change your passport, which I highly suggest you read.
Note the ACLU and other lawyers are going to fight as hard as they can to make sure this injunction will not be enforced, but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Why Passports are a Major Deal
Now, some of you may be wondering “why is this important?” For those who don’t travel often, it is something you barely see. Even when you do, it doesn’t feel like it is a prominent part of the process. Some might wonder “shouldn’t we be focusing more on other things? Like trans healthcare or hate crimes?” While those topics are incredibly important factors in our current climate, there is an importance in passports some people might not recognize.
According to the Offit Kurman Blogs, while not prohibiting you from traveling, inconsistent gender marked passports can cause problems when dealing with boarders, visas, etc. To add on to this, it can decrease dysphoria and accidentally out trans people to strangers, Trans Youth Equality states. Having a passport that reflects you not only affirms your gender (or lack thereof), but it can protect you from transphobic strangers.
That protection is more important than ever. Our trans and gender-nonconforming siblings shouldn’t have to feel fear of or deal with transphobia while on vacation or an important business trip. They should be able to be themselves, only worrying about where their bags are at the airport. It is also one step towards their journey of transitioning, so we should fight transphobia so they can do that.
So please advocate for your passports and make sure that they reflect you.
Photo courtesy of Public Domain Pictures
